Of Passenger Seats and Lullabies
by genieforyourworld
Summary: Chrome becomes disillusioned thanks to Mukuro. And she is grateful. /6996/


**Diclaimer: KHR does not belong to me.**

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_Of Passenger Seats and Lullabies_

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Sometimes, Chrome considers, that he is a stranger.

There are moments in their entangled lives whereby he is still, silent and cautious. But there are days where he is open, bright and sinuous. Mukuro is intelligent and messily beautiful.

He spends his days drifting - in a way unlike Hibari Kyoya - and wondering. Preparing for something bigger.

She cannot reach his mind when he blocks himself, he refuses to let her in. But she never revolts or pressures him. She has no intention of being his burden.

He is his own person, never letting anyone take charge of him, tell him what to do. Neither Ken or Chikusa, nor Hibari or Sawada Tsunayoshi. Not her.

He orders, and everyone stops.

He orders, and she follows.

* * *

Mukuro thrives on blood and vengeance and his own world. Chrome never pushes or shoves him into telling things of his past. He calls the shots, not her. She understands that he is a person who belongs in this world - whether he is an antagonist or an anti-hero.

She does not.

Nagi was small and fragile, alone and without a cause - something tossed aside without second thought.

Chrome is growing, taking baby steps into a brave new world. His world, illusion or reality.

Yet she does what he wants because he exists. He is there - her hero, her saviour.

Mukuro lets her live and promises her a tomorrow. A future she'd die for.

* * *

He is beautiful, she thinks.

He'll let her speak and will listen. She'll hear him and hang onto every word.

He'll urge her to be honest when telling him about everything. But she is wary and holds back. Chrome doesn't want to be a disappointment, to upset him or make him angry and have him ridicule her stupidity in similar fashion to Ken and Chikusa.

But that only seems to offend him further. She becomes disillusioned thanks to Mukuro. And she is grateful.

He is magnificent in the way he reacts, teaches her and informs her about the universe and its disheartened core, in the way which he drags her headfirst and fearlessly through blood, death and misery.

Chrome wishes to reach his standards of freedom and meet a sense of liberty on her own - so long as she can stay by Mukuro's side, to please him and ride shotgun all the way.

He is a thrill ride which she wishes to never let go of.

He is beautiful in how he walks and talks with grace and adornment, in how he can pull a lonely soul and pathetic human (such as herself) into the sunlight and face the dawn.

* * *

One of the many aspects of Mukuro which she loves and clings to is his consistency.

Especially when it involves her, for then she understands what it means to be cared for and cherished.

He swears to look after her and protect her when need be. In turn, she wishes to be able to rise against the odds - _for him_, and only him.

* * *

Chrome wishes to fly someday.

She has no intention of letting time be time and run its course, no matter how unrealistic the idealism seemed.

She wishes to stand on her own two feet and be his anchor. To be his support and take his hand, not the other way around.

She aims to touch his skin and aches to know if it is truly as soft and delicate as he makes it seem in her dreams. Chrome pursues the mist and reaches out to make it authentic and pure.

She wants to feel alive and real and solid. And wants him to feel the same.

Therefore, she swears upon her damaged heart to set him free.

* * *

She is wary and terrified of the Vongola as she truly meets them for the first time.

She wants nothing more than to sink back into Mukuro's illusions - where she is safe and secure. She needs nothing more than his smile and gentle laugh to keep her sheltered; where she belonged.

Chrome was his, and _they _were something else entirely, alien and foreign - everything he is not.

Unsure and lost, she hid from them, insecurity and instinct as a result from fear taking over. Only later to discover that they were different nonetheless, but faithful and courageous and extraordinary.

The girls, the Boss and the others were good people, she noticed. But there was an empty load where her heart should be, and that precious, smooth voice in her head had evaporated from her reach.

_He was gone._

* * *

Mukuro was her source of life. A figure of everlasting and eternal promises and hope.

Perhaps, to other people, he was a monster. But some attributes, she came to know, only ran skin deep.

He is strong and powerful. Any sane man should fear him, but she is far from normal.

Chrome worries for him and panics when people taunt and mock him. She is terrified of losing him permanently.

For he is everything in her world. Hibari may have drawn out her own power, but she was nothing without _him_. She needed him to breathe and survive - to keep going.

She didn't really care if she never saw her blood family again. Nagi was dependent on him. He was everything she believed in, his words and his actions - _everything he was_.

Chrome was only half of the whole without Mukuro.

* * *

She cannot recall the exact moment she knew for certain that she loved him.

_(even though she could touch him now)_

Maybe it had all built up piece by piece over the years. Was that how humanity was composed? Like a piece of music, bar by bar, or a house, brick by brick?

_(hold his hand in her own)_

It didn't really matter to her anymore. She would be a person, with a mind of her own and her own feet to walk with.

_(feel the warmth of his skin)_

But he was still there. To carry her when she was injured, to pick her up when she fell, to heal her fractured body and fill her lonely mind.

_(hear the smooth call of his voice) _

He was there to give her life meaning.

_(able to sing her to sleep)_

Mukuro existed. And maybe, that was perfectly enough.

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**Please review. **


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